Stephan de Faÿ

Biography: Stéphan de Faÿ, 49, has been the CEO of Grand Paris Aménagement, a public development and land operator active in around 100 projects, primarily in Île-de-France, since November 27, 2020. He previously held the same position at the EPA Bordeaux Euratlantique from 2014. An Engineer General of the French Army, Stéphan de Faÿ graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées (ENSTA). He also studied under the French philosopher and academician René Girard at Stanford University in 1999. He began his career in 2001 at the Direction des Chantiers Navals (DCN, now Naval Group), before joining the Délégation Générale pour l’Armement (DGA) in 2003. In 2005, he transitioned to the Interministerial Directorate for Economic Transformations, working on economic revitalization projects for regions and industrial crisis management. He then returned to the DGA until 2008, where he handled NATO-related issues. From 2008 to 2011, Stéphan de Faÿ worked for Christian Blanc, the then Secretary of State for the development of the Capital Region, where he helped design the architecture for a new Grand Paris. He continued his mission as Deputy Director of Cabinet for Michel Mercier, Minister of Rural Areas and Spatial Planning, and later for Maurice Leroy, Minister of the City in charge of Grand Paris. In this role, he was Head of the Grand Paris unit and contributed to the historic agreement of January 26, 2011, between the State and the Île-de-France Region, unifying the routes of the automatic metro and giving rise to the Grand Paris Express. From 2011 to 2014, he served at the Établissement Public d’Aménagement de la Défense Seine Arche (EPADESA) as Deputy Director-General for Administration and Finance. Stéphan de Faÿ has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) France since 2013 and has served as ULI's Global Governing Trustee for Europe since 2021. He sits on the boards of several companies and organizations, including the Société du Grand Paris, the Écoles Nationales Supérieures d’Architecture in Paris Malaquais and Versailles, and the economic development agency for the Île-de-France Region, Choose Paris Region. Since 2015, he has chaired Cré’Atlantique, a cultural endowment fund that has raised over 3 million euros to support cultural initiatives alongside development projects led by the EPA Bordeaux Euratlantique. Since 2021, in collaboration with several public and private stakeholders, including the Conseil National de l’Ordre des Architectes (CNOA), he has spearheaded the structuring of the French off-site construction sector and has chaired the corresponding association since its inception in 2023. He also launched a collective action within the Université de la Ville de Demain (UVD) in 2023 to form a land alliance with and for medium-sized cities. The first such agreement was signed between the cities of Aubervilliers and Saint-Dizier during the UVD summit in late May 2024. Finally, Stéphan de Faÿ received the Urbanism Medal from the French Academy of Architecture in 2022 and was named Man of the Year 2021 by Innovapresse as part of its publication The 100 Who Shape the City.